Overview

Arnica LinkServer is a web-based tool, which helps you create and present customized sets of links. Arnica LinkServer add many great features to what may otherwise be considered a simple task of displaying links. These features are: authentication, authorization, conditional display, randomized display from a pool of available links, display and click quota, rotating links, links with special presentation features, server-side processing of click event, detailed click statistics reporting, etc.

True Thin Client

Arnica LinkServer is a true thin client solution: design, execution and
administration are all done through a web browser. To ensure broader
compatibility, LinkServer uses pure
HTML/XML/CSS content on web pages and does not utilize client-side
ActiveX components, DLLs, or heavy-duty JavaScript libraries. Remote design, maintenance and customization through a web browser provide great flexibility and opportunities in both internal and outsourced development and management.

Template Driven

Arnica LinkServer is a template-driven system. Templates are created using
standard HTML content fragments with evaluatable expressions and may be
used to customize virtually any presentation part of link listing output: top
level link composition, composition within link subcategories, design of actual link presentation, etc. Link presentation may be defined as text content or images, with various effects provided by HTML and CSS, for example, image fading effect when displaying rotating links with each link presented as an image. Shared
presentation features saved in a template may be used for multiple link categories and managed centrally. A contemporary default template
may be used for all new solutions, with further modifications added to
fit your style requirements.

Feature-Rich Management Options

Arnica LinkServer provides designers with many powerful management features, which affect whether a link is displayed, how it is displayed and what happens when user clicks on the link:

authentication and authorization (to determine whether user is authorized to see the link and/or click on the link)

customized presentation of link content based on type of user and other conditions

link list (link category) template

individual link presentation template

use text and images in clickable link area

display quota (specifies maximum number of times the link may be displayed)

click quota (specifies maximum number of times the link may be clicked on)

rotating presentation of links

randomized presentation of links

click count

click activity and link popularity statistics

vertical, horizontal or custom link list layout orientation

flexible link position relative to other links

conditional display within a specified date range, which also accepts evaluatable expressions to dynamically calculate the date range

condition scripts, which may express any condition affecting link presentation and click action

Central Database Repository

Arnica LinkServer stores its meta data (link categories definitions) in a central
database repository (based on Microsoft SQLServer or free SQLServer
Express Edition) and allows for certain operations to be performed simultaneously against
multiple link categories and links at design time, for example, metadata search and
updates against several link categories, link category export/import,
ability to use global parameters shared by multiple links, etc. There are no individual files to deploy on
multiple servers to make the solution available at runtime, as all link definitions and templates are stored in the database and LinkServer pulls all this information from database at realtime when displaying link categories with links.

Broad Compatibility and Integration Capabilities

Web interface of Arnica LinkServer allows you to easily integrate your LinkServer solution with virtually any contemporary tools and technologies supporting HTTP communication, such
as .NET, PHP, Java, COM, Microsoft SharePoint, IBM WebSphere, open
source portals and other integration platforms. Users can retrieve links for presentation by link category to achieve the effect of a customized menu system on a standalone page, or links may be presented as a portlet on a portal page using web requests.

Access Control and Activity Log

Arnica
LinkServer supports user authentication and authorization provided by
.NET and allows granular user access control with zero programming
efforts through integration with Arnica UnifiedLogon identity management
system (single application version of Arnica UnifiedLogon is included
at no cost with Arnica LinkServer).

Arnica LinkServer publishes detailed activity events into a central database
repository, enabling you to perform statistical analysis of activity by
various parameters, such as click per user, click per link, within specified date
range, etc.